Tattered Legacy (A Nora Abbott Mystery) (22 page)

Nora’s stomach clenched and she held her breath.

She hit rewind, then play.

Oh my God
.

Rewind. Play. Pause.

Her ears rang as she stared at the image. A white pickup straddled the center line of the road, heading up the last stretch to the trailhead.

She had her proof.

thirty-two

The rain fell just
enough to make the trail slick and in her rush to reach the trailhead, Nora tripped and scraped her knee. Heart thundering, she sprinted past the clearing. Muddy and wet, Nora made it back to the Jeep. She wrenched open the door and jumped in. Abbey licked her face and sat in the passenger seat.

Warren had Abigail. The Evanses were all killers, and now that Nora had proof Lee had murdered Lisa, she might be able to use it to save Abigail.

Somehow.

Nora started the Jeep and backed onto the highway. She grabbed her phone and dialed Marlene.

“I found Lisa’s camera,” she said when Marlene answered. “She said to ask you what’s going on.”

Marlene hesitated. “The less you know, the better.”

Nora barely restrained herself from yelling into the phone. “Warren kidnapped Abigail. I need to know everything!”

“What’s he doing with Abigail?”

Nora clamped the phone to her ear using her shoulder and shifted gears. Still breathless from her run from the swimming hole, she said, “I don’t have time to explain. Lisa said Warren Evans is leader of a cult. Did he have Lee kill Lisa? It’s got nothing to do with Canyonlands, does it?”

“You think Lee killed Lisa?” She sounded disbelieving.

Nora concentrated on the black road in front of her. “Is it the Underground Railroad? Did she help one of his wives escape?”

Marlene whispered. “Slow down. Lee didn’t kill Lisa because of the railroad. He was helping those girls.”

“Maybe he’s just acting like he’s helping. He’s dangerous. I know it.”

“Okay, maybe there is something else going on,” Marlene stammered. “It’s not what you think. But we learned about it through the girls.”

“About what?” Nora wanted to scream.

“You know all those people you saw with Lee the day the cows almost got loose?”

“Yes.”

“They’re immigrants to Warren’s colony. They came from Ger-
many.”

“How do you know this?”

“A few months ago one of the girls we helped said her mother’s family had disappeared. Before that, her mother had talked about Sky People coming for them.”

Nora hit a flooded dip in the road and splashing water roared.

“They were supposed to immigrate to another planet on the summer solstice.”

That was in two days. “Immigrate from where?”

“The mother told her they were going to the Sky Ranch. But we didn’t know where that was.”

“Tokpela! Tokpela Ranch. Sky in Hopi.”

“Yeah. I figured that out today. How did you know?”

“Lisa.”

Something crashed as if Marlene had slammed a fist down. “She must have figured it out and they killed her to keep her quiet.”

Snakes knotted in Nora’s stomach. “Warren? He’s got a god syndrome and people think he’s leading them to outer space. Crackpots like that come along all the time. Why would he have Lisa killed to keep her from telling anyone?”

“How the hell would I know?” Marlene yelled. She paused and continued, calmer now. “He’s a crazy man. This family from Germany arrived at the ranch yesterday. Hans and his wife and kids. Hans’s half-brother had immigrated a couple of weeks ago but Hans didn’t tell Warren he was related in case there were family quotas. When they got to the Sky Ranch, Hans’s half-brother and family weren’t in the bunker.”

Nora swung the Jeep onto the highway and zoomed north. “A bunker?”

“Apparently there is a massive underground facility that can house a couple of thousand people and they’ve been gathering in the last week or so to wait for the solstice. Warren had it built at his family ranch. It must have been under constructions for years to complete it without anyone noticing.”

As isolated as Tokpela Ranch seemed, building something on the sly would be possible. “This guy’s brother from Germany went missing? Maybe he changed his mind and left.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too. But Hans picked up clues from the other immigrants. They all give up their assets when they join. He’s convinced his brother wanted to leave, but Warren’s people didn’t want him to spill the beans on their plans and they really didn’t want to give him his money back. So they killed him. That’s when Hans and his family snuck away.”

People hiding underground in the desert waiting for the aliens to take them home—this couldn’t be real. “Why did they come to you?”

“Hans tried to get another family to leave, too. They were too frightened, but they knew about the Underground Railroad so they gave him my name.”

It sounded too far-fetched. “You believe him about all of this?”

“I don’t know.” She paused. “Yes, I guess I do. Until he showed up here today, I didn’t know about the bunker or Topkela. Lisa did and now she’s dead.”

“Call the FBI. Tell them all of this and send them out to Lee’s ranch.”

Steel sounded in Marlene’s voice. “I already did it an hour ago.”

Nora hung up and swung through Moab, speeding along the highway past the café and outfitter’s office. She squealed her brakes to turn on the highway that ran alongside the river. Rain from afternoon monsoon storms upstream had swollen it and it raged muddy in the dusky shadow.

The only plan Nora could concoct was to go to Darrell. He had the resources to find Warren and stop him. She dialed him but it went straight to voicemail.

The rain smacked against the windshield and Nora felt time slipping by as she raced to Castle Valley. Full-on dark dropped before Nora whipped the Jeep from the highway onto the narrow road into the village.

A crack of lightning flared and she automatically counted until the boom of thunder followed. Four seconds. The storm would crash over them soon.

Her back tires skidded as she jerked the wheel to make the hard left into Lisa’s lane. She gunned it down the sloshy tracks and slowed before rounding the last curve. A dark shape loomed ahead and she slammed on the brakes.

Darrell’s 4Runner was parked along the road. He’d know who to call to help them find Abigail. Abbey jumped to his feet and put his front feet on her lap, ready to escape the Jeep after being cooped up so long.

She killed the engine and slipped from the Jeep. Abbey wanted out, but Nora held her hand up, blocking his exit. She pushed the Jeep door, snicking it closed instead of slamming it, though the roar of the wind would have masked a marching band.

She sprinted for the house but when she ran around the curve, she stopped. Lee’s white pickup snugged up behind Rachel’s Passat in front of the porch. Where was Darrell? Did he have Rachel and Lee subdued inside? Did they have him?

Hoping to avoid detection if Lee and Rachel were in the kitchen or living room or even on the front porch, Nora snuck around the cabin and came up the back. Maybe she’d be able to get some information about Abigail.

Wind tugged at her hair and whipped it into her face. She fumbled a ponytail elastic from her wrist and gathered her hair, twisting the tie around it while she ran. The rain still fell in fat drops, slapping the dirt and dampening the sage and pinion, letting off their spicy scents.

She slowed her pace as she neared the back deck. The wind continued its camouflaging racket and she sank to her knees. With great care, she moved as slowly as possible, careful not to draw attention to herself. Lying on her belly, she peered through the French doors into Lisa’s office.

The office sat dark and empty. But lights in the kitchen shone on Rachel as she perched on a barstool facing the kitchen, her back to Nora.

Lee leaned against the sink, his black hat pushed back on his forehead. He wore his standard scowl and radiated a super-intense attitude. His lips moved and Rachel nodded as he talked, but Nora couldn’t hear through the closed doors. She didn’t see Darrell.

Nora backed away from the door and off the porch. She crawled along the side of the house, ducking under the open living room windows. The cabin blocked the full force of the wind and when Nora positioned herself directly under the window closest to Lee and Rachel, she could hear the hard notes of Rachel’s voice.

“Nora’s gone. She knows there’s no film. She’s not going to cause any more trouble.” Yay, Rachel—sticking up for Nora’s life.

“Darrell will find her and then it’ll be all over.” If Lee’s voice had fingers, they’d be wrapped around Nora’s neck.

Darrell was in on the Warren cult along with Rachel and Lee? That didn’t make any sense. He must be playing along until he had the information needed to expose them.

“Darrell’s not around, either. Maybe he’s finally going to do what Warren ordered him to do and then we don’t have anything to worry about.” Warren must have ordered Darrell to kill Nora.

“Darrell won’t do it.” Disgust iced Lee’s words. “He’s never done Warren’s bidding unless there was something in it for him. He won’t put himself in danger just to please a dying man.”

Of course Darrell wouldn’t do it. He wasn’t really working for Warren. But where was he?

Nora eased up to peer over the windowsill.

Rachel dropped her head to her folded arms on the counter. “We’ll need to get them both.”

Lee’s mouth twisted as if he chewed on spoiled meat. “We’ll take care of them.”

Like they’d taken care of Lisa. Like Warren might take care of Abigail?

“Is Uncle Warren still determined to go through with this? It’s crazy.” Rachel said.

Lee stomped to the end of the kitchen and back, as though his hatred couldn’t be contained. “It’s not crazy. The Sky People are coming. Uncle Warren’s more determined than ever now that he’s got his rightful heir.”

Rachel sat up. “Why did she have to come here? Why did she have to know Lisa? If it wasn’t for Nora and her precious film, Lisa wouldn’t have died.”

It sounded like Lee spit darts at Rachel. “Maybe Lisa died because of her unnatural ways. Maybe it’s her punishment for leading you to sin.”

Rachel let out a sob. “She should still be alive.”

Lee leaned on the counter and his eyes drilled into Rachel. “Alive for what? For you to continue this sinful life?”

Rachel glared at him. “What kind of life do you think suits me better?”

Surprisingly, he sounded almost gentle. “You know.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “You remember.”

Rachel backed away. “I remember two good years.”

“It didn’t have to end,” he said.

She shook her head. “Even back then, you knew I wasn’t the right wife for you.”

He straightened and the rime of hatred lifted from his face. “That’s not true. I loved you. I wanted you.”

“That’s just it. You wanted me, but I didn’t want you in that same way. And you knew it.”

“We could have worked it out.”

Now her voice rose in near-hysteria. “I didn’t want to work it out. And then you brought Tessa into our home. I didn’t mind, really. In fact, it gave me a break from the part of our marriage I couldn’t stand.”

He studied her. “Then why?”

She swiped at tears. “Tessa was the younger sister. She loved me and is so easygoing. But then you brought Cassie. That ruined everything.”

“She’s your sister. And she was getting too old for anyone else. I thought I owed it to you, to your family. I thought you’d want your sisters with you.”

“No woman wants to share her husband with her sisters!”

The rain intensified and Nora leaned closer to hear above the rumbling on the roof.

“You never asked me or even discussed it. You filled up our home with the others. They pushed me out. And when they started having babies, you never even looked at me anymore.”

Lee reached out again and she backed up further. “Then I met Lisa. She was smart and wild and so pretty.”

He flinched as if she had burned him.

“I finally knew what was wrong with me and Lisa didn’t think it was wrong at all.”

Lee looked like he wanted to stick his fingers in his ears. “It’s wrong. It’s against God’s law.”

“Whose God? A lot of people say what you do is a sin.”

“You decided to love a woman because she paid attention to you and made you feel special.” He said it as if she were a six-year-old who stole her friend’s doll.

“No. I didn’t decide. I discovered. One day, I was working at the farmer’s market and Lisa was buying cheese. She used to come by the stand every week and we’d talk about everything and anything.”

Rachel drew in a shaky breath but smiled at the memory. “A mountain biking team walked by and they were tanned and muscled and nice looking. Lisa said, ‘I can appreciate a good-looking man, and those are excellent bodies, but they don’t do it for me.’”

Lee let out a sound that might have been a wretch.

“And I thought, ‘That’s how I feel. It’s how I’ve always felt.’ I looked at Lisa and I knew why I always got tongue-tied when she stopped at the stand. I knew why I flushed when I saw her in the crowd and got all flustered when she left.”

A whine at the screen made Rachel and Lee jerk their heads to the front door.

“Abbey?” Rachel said.

Lee swung his head to the window. He made eye contact with Nora before she spun around and sprinted from the cabin.

Once away from the protection of the eves, the wind and rain battered her. She swiveled her head to see Lee vault the front porch railing and land in the mud. He slipped in his cowboy boots, but pushed himself up and came after her.

Clay caked on the bottom of her boots and soon she carried what felt like ten extra pounds with each step. She pumped her arms and took off for the Jeep.

Lightning cracked and almost immediately, the thunder hit with a rumbling she felt in her bones. Another flash of lightning followed in rapid succession.

Her legs fought the sucking mud. The rain slashed at her face and her arms ripped through the sharp thorns of the wolfberry bush.

She barely made it out of the yard. The Jeep was a dark hulk camouflaged by rain. Lee grunted behind her. With the slick leather of his cowboy boots, he hadn’t gathered the layers of clay to drag him down.

Fear fueled an ext
ra surge of speed.

Something slammed into her back with the force of a freight train, knocking her down to splash in two inches of water and mud. Her cheek slammed into something hard and Lee landed on top of her. He felt like a solid lead skeleton—heavy, hard, and bony, grinding her into the grime and red slurry.